Grudzien Wins InterPoker.com's Loser's Leap

27 July 2006

By Aaron Todd

JEAN, Nev. -- Nick Grudzien, a 29-year old semi-professional poker player from New York City, won InterPoker.com's latest Extreme Poker Challenge – "Loser's Leap" – on Wednesday morning.

The third in a series of exotic poker tournaments, Loser's Leap featured four Internet qualifiers against one of the most "extreme" poker players on the professional circuit: Phil "The Unabomber" Laak.

The tournament took place on a plane 10,000 feet above the Jean Airport 20 miles south of Las Vegas, and when a player busted out, they took a tandem jump out of the plane, hurtling themselves back towards Earth.

For the win, Grudzien receives a $6,300 entry into the Caribbean Poker Classic in St. Kitts in late November.

Using a very aggressive style in the short sit-and-go tournament (perhaps "sit-and-jump" would be a more appropriate description), Grudzien built an early chip lead. He knocked Laak out in fourth place, and Laak soared to the ground, slowed by a giant "InterPoker.com" parachute.

"Nick is sick," said Laak, who estimates he has been skydiving 12-15 times before. "But how can you lose in this thing? If you lose the tournament, you get to jump out of a plane?"

Previous Extreme Poker Challenges have taken place underwater in the Caribbean and on a frozen lake in Finland. InterPoker.com is planning at least one more, to-be-determined Extreme Poker Challenge before hosting another tournament underwater in St. Kitts, dubbed the Deep Water Series of Poker (DWSOP).

Notes: While Laak was disappointed in his performance, it's understandable as he had just few hours of sleep after finishing the first day of a World Series of Poker event among the chip leaders. He was not without good humor upon arriving, however, sporting a form-fitting purple jump suit for the flight. When asked if it was his own, Laak replied: "If this was my own (suit), maybe my package wouldn't be so prominently displayed." ... Antonio Esfandiari and Scott Fischman were originally scheduled to participate in the event, but Esfandiari was a last-minute scratch as he came down with a cold and did not make it to Jean Airport. Fischman, who endorses InterPoker.com, was at the event, but did not participate due to a wrist injury. A fourth Internet qualifier was added to increase the field to five players.

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